


Iron Man, Iron Will

by Moviemuncher



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Billionaire, Kibera, Nairobi, Playboy, Will Smith quote, genius, philanthropist, stuck in my head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 17:58:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6480871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moviemuncher/pseuds/Moviemuncher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is a philanthropist right? A small fic as to why and a situation in which he is. Character study.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Iron Man, Iron Will

**Author's Note:**

> Watch 'why do we fall motivational video' on YouTube. About 6 minutes long. It stuck with me and I was watching Age of Uktron afterwards. I love Tony Stark, he's a simple but also complicated person.

"If you're not making someone else's life better, then you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other people's lives better"- Will Smith

 

Tony is not, he likes to think, a complicated person. 

He is selfish and giving in equal measures. But he only gives what he can afford. He can admittedly afford a lot; even so he finds that he doesn't actually give enough away. It changes lives what he does give. A bunch (50) of intelli-crops to a small village, a plant that produces 100% yield, six times a year, saved many lives. It kept them from starvation, they could sell it on, or use the crops to tide them over between their field's yields. He has donated that exact amount to one hundred and forty two villages in all of Asia. He can do better, he will do better. 

He has vices. So, so many vices. Drink, women, fast cars. Well, one woman now. Pepper Potts, she is by far, too good for him. But, here's the selfish part, he won't accept that and give her up. He can accept it if he can keep her. 

Yet, Ironman was a superhero. He was. 

Ironman was born out of desperation to escape. It was refined in revenge, and what does that say about him? He's prideful. The Ten Rings hurt that pride and paid for it. Yinsen had grew on him, and he took Yinsen's death on his shoulders, and out on the terrorists, burning them. 

Watching Captain America only reinforces these slights. 

Steve Rogers does not understand what Tony is about but Tony thinks he is remarkably simple. 

It's the soldier that is complicated. Small little Steve, volunteered for the army. He was rejected and rejected, who is that desperate to die? Who truly wants to be that selfless? So he tries harder, cheats, begs. Eventually, he succeeds thanks to a scientist who asks him to take part in an experiment. As the subject. And tiny Steve becomes Rogers. Strong, brave Rogers. 

A martyr, and God knows why. 

He criticised Tony for hacking SHIELDs files, and then does the exact same thing, except in an old-fashioned way. Typical. Tony is always cut down by hypocrites who are the same. By the end of it, they work together. And they work relatively well together. 

The team play doesn't even last two days, New York is over and only Dr Banner wants to stick around. Even then, Bruce plans to return to Calcutta, and then continue travelling. Fixing people up, being the MD he never actually trained to be. 

But for now, Banner lingers in Tony's third R&D level. It has the current projects that capture Tony's mind. Bruce is offering input and improvements where he can. It's two different fields though. Bruce is suitably impressed by Tony's plans to shorten the growth time of the intelli-crops. He has change the formula, by introducing an organic nitrate catalyst, that should shorten it to a month of growth, halving the time it normally took and increasing the yearly yield by doubling it. He has five plants acting under this, he just has to see of they will work. He will know in less than four weeks. Then he will submit it to testing in SI's labs, testing the crops grown for safe edibility. 

He hopes it will be enough. 

***

Kibera, Nairobi. 

A shanty town, a slum. 

And he's being toured about. An Iron Legionnaire acts as his bodyguard. The Mark 42 is ready to deploy, just outside of the slum. He is watching children, weedy children with bloated hollow stomachs and yellowed eyes, run. Barefoot, mostly naked. He is sickened by it, the sheer desperation of the place. It reeked. 

He thought he'd know death, he thought he'd known sickness. He was naive then. This was disease, demise. 

He hadn't done enough. Fifty intelli-crops to a village? Pathetic. 

A child runs to him, dark skin further coloured with an unhealthy flush, and he waves off the Legionnaire and a number of guides. He bends to his knees in the disgusting mud and sewage, his expensive slacks ruined. He does not care. 

The child stops before him and offers him a smile. The child recognises Tony Stark. She recognises Iron Man. The smile is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, including the love of his life Pepper. Because if this child can smile in a place like this, a kind smile in the face of the man who has it all, who she should be bitterly jealous of, is the most remarkable thing Tony can think of. 

He holds his hand up, as though for a high five. 

Her tiny hand barely covers the length of his palm and is half the width. Skeletal. 

He could throw some money at them, leave it be. 

Or he could oversee, manage and even build better sewage systems and houses. Get the area cleaned up, quicker than any housing project. Make it a community of people instead of desperate individuals in a small space. 

That's what Tony Stark will do.


End file.
